Cthulala
by The USS Ficcelsior
Summary: A slinky tale of Eldritch horror.


" _Yamashiro urges Yui to shoot her so she won't have to endure the Tank-class tearing her apart, but Yui loses her nerve and misses the headshot, allowing the Tanks to eat Yamashiro in peace. Yamashiro and the numerous Tank-class then became one, united in bone-crunching matrimony."_

\- Muv-Luv Wikia

* * *

Things were about to get a little prickly for the heroes in the demon nest. Bryce and Nikki were still recovering from the demon lord's latest attack, huddling in pain and staggering back to their feet. Next to them, Arcadia was lying face-down and unconscious. A stream of blood trickled from a bruise on her temple.

Towering over the three demon hunters was Astaroth, an abominable squirming mass of web-like flesh and flailing appendages. He had infested the top floor of this skyscraper as the throne room for his invasion, poising his army to spread his wretched will over the whole city.

Bryce lifted his sword and made another charge for the demon king. Nikki stretched her palms forward, focusing an aura of white magic around her hands. Bruce's sword began to glow with the same intensity as Nikki channeled her powers to him. He carved though every imp, tentacle, and black orb thrown in his way to settle his score with the demon.

Astaroth laughed at the puny light show. The roof of the building started to tremble.

Nikki quickly dodged to her right as one of Astaroth's tentacles slammed down beside her. She shrieked and jumped in the opposite direction as another tentacle tried to grab her on her left. A third tentacle shot out from the middle, trapping the bewildered Nikki in its path and aiming its spear-like tip for her torso.

Bryce instantly saw Cypher's gruesome demise play through his mind. As he ran toward Nikki screaming her name in desperation, a wall of tentacles exploded from the ground in front of him and tossed him away. The last thing he saw was Nikki and the single descending tentacle disappearing behind a cloud of debris.

The tendril moved in slow motion as it reached Nikki's bare waist. The tip peeled apart into five soft digits like arms on a starfish, revealing a forked black tongue that flaccidly rolled forward. The tiny appendage landed softly on Nikki's skin, slowly coiled in a circle around the edge of her navel, and flicked at a pellet of sweat. Then it violently straightened and lunged straight into her sensitive core.

In the moment they connected, Nikki cringed in a way that had more to do with disgust than discomfort, as if the tips of an icicle, a blow torch, and a feather were passing through her in a single impossible sensation. At the same time, Astaroth made a face like he had just dipped his thousands of grimy toes in warm, pure spring water for the first time.

Powerful waves of dark energy and demon murk flowed out of Astaroth's tendril and straight into Nikki's body. Nikki was vulnerable to the same delicate tickle reflex as many unlucky Mediums before her, causing the muscles of her waist to move in tiny sharp spasms under the invasive touch, and providing an ideal home for the squirming villi on the end of the tentacle. The bright aura resonating from her arms faded like a dying star as her eyes flickered with a new shade of half-amber.

Nikki's mind was filled with all of the sorts of frightful images that would chill any respectable young woman of her profession to the bone. There was the nightmare where she would forget the lyrics for one of her songs in the middle of a concert. There was the other nightmare where she remembered the lyrics, but the lip synching system the audience wasn't supposed to know about would suddenly break down. Then there was the one where the show started off fine until she realized she was standing in center stage performing her choreography butt naked. There were also the occasional terrifying flashes of a horrible future where humanity was enslaved by demons and Nikki loomed in the background cackling psychotically with the lower half of her body obscured by flames and shadows, but that didn't bother her very much. That part was normal for her. She just recorded a music video that looked kind of like that a couple of weeks ago.

Nikki stumbled over her queasy gelatin legs and landed on the ground kicking and clawing on her side. The tentacle quickly wrapped around her to restrict her thrashing, while a small length of smooth scales coiled under her cheek to act as a headrest. That narrow stretch of time after the lock pick had slipped through the keyhole but the levers were only starting to turn was always the most unpleasant part of the ceremony for the Medium, but it rarely lasted long.

"Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ee-… _Aah…_ "

Nikki's complaints grew quiet as her fighting subsided. Her efforts to push the tentacle away seamlessly changed to tugging it closer between her fingers, helping it untangle so it could get a more secure grasp in her, and even petting it for providing her an overwhelming supply of raw demonic essence. Somehow she could sense her bloodstream had been tainted beyond all hope and her internal organs weren't working too well, but that was okay. Astaroth would manage all of the little physiological details so she only had to focus on putting on a great show as the Medium. It was the ultimate form of pampering.

Bryce ran to one corner of the nest, unleashed a burst of machine gun fire on Astaroth, and darted to the next corner before the demon could counter. Arcadia was still lying a few yards away from him, but Nikki was nowhere to beside. He was about to charge at the demon lord when a blur of silver and brown sugar slammed into him from the side.

Bryce struggled back up on one knee and shook his head in shock. When his vision cleared, he was eye level with Nikki's midriff.

At such a close angle, he could see the individual flaring veins that transfused all of Astaroth's evil directly into Nikki. The five tiny leathery digits at the end of the tentacle resembled the shape of Astaroth's symbol as they gently throbbed against her moist bronze skin in the rhythm of a heartbeat, keeping the flow in continuous motion and protectively insulating the small circular joint between the woman's body and the demon's. The constant pulsing action did wonders for her lean and rippled abdominals.

The appendage that connected Nikki's simple navel to the rest of Astaroth's monstrous anatomy was a winding and confusing road of sensual embrace, blending the sparkling silver curves of her formfitting dance ensemble with the curves of the oozing snake-like scales on Astaroth's slithering arm. A few inches out from its firmly rooted tip, the tendril had looped itself over her hips like a loose leather sash. It quivered up her bare stomach, coiled unashamedly under, over, and between her zinc-wrapped bosom, and wrapped tightly around her neck. From there, it traced back down the naked valley of her spine, nestled through the rounded indentation on the back of her metallic shorts, and waved behind her legs like a lizard's tail, all before leading a few dozen meters back towards Astaroth's towering figure.

When Bryce's gaze reached the top of Nikki's anatomy, he saw the ensnared Medium's ghostly yellow eyes staring back down on him.

Nikki stretched an arm behind her head and yawned peacefully.

"'Sup?" she asked Bryce.

Arcadia started coming to and raised her head just in time to witness the horrifying and enticing sight. Instantly, she regretted it. In all of her research, she never wanted to believe the myths. The near-untranslatable fine print on the bottom of the ancient scrolls that warned of the dangers involved when a non-demonic Medium honed her body to channel the forces of the unknown. Few demon hunting agents shared the knowledge for the sake of their own dignity, and Arcadia wished she had never learned of it herself. Various archaic terms like _Magus Appendagus_ , _Demonica Omphalia,_ and _Sorcerii Stamenii_ had been used to describe a Medium who had fallen into this state, but the common name for this hypothetical class of demon was Umbilicant. And Nikki had just been turned into one.

"What… are you doing to her you bastard?" Bryce shouted toward Astaroth.

"I've simply brought this wretched girl to her true calling," the demon answered. "You didn't think being called a Medium only means you channel the forces your measly human mind can understand, did you? When you open your body as a physical conduit for magical power, it means _all_ the forces of the universe can connect through you. It's a coin toss which side will win the prize each time a new Medium appears."

The scales of the tentacle made a sound like straining rope as they shifted closer around Nikki's neck.

"You only know the history that's been recorded by mortals, the twisted stories where most Mediums are some whimsical barn girl who almost always dies valiantly to protect her species. But we demons remember the parts of history your kind is too ashamed to write down. There was the Conquering of the Pit, when Asmodai first performed the union in battle with the fair Medium of Minos. The Sealing of the Abyss, where Allocer claimed his Medium through a failed séance and used her as his hand to kill all of her own shrine servants. The Filling of the Void, where the Medium charged with defending Atlantis became the third appendage in Dantalion's Flail Harem. The Great Prodding, where Baal betrothed an entire cult of Mediums in an instant when they tried to join their powers to quell him. The only things that joined that day were twelve eager witch bellies with twelve raging tentacles, one wife for each arm. And now they'll remember how Astaroth united with the only Medium of the modern age in the Ballet of the Fulfilled Blemish. We've converted almost as many of these hapless wenches to demonkin as we've exterminated."

"I'm the first time you've ever poked one with her own marketing team, though." Nikki giggled and crossed her arms. She purred as the slithering tentacle passively massaged every crevice of her dancer body.

"You and I are more alike than you know, demon hunter," Astaroth continued. "You took the last generation's Medium as your human bride. It's only natural the Medium of this era gave herself to me in the customary demon way."

In the spires above the demon nest, a pair of cackling goblins who have never been mentioned before and will never be mentioned again were chattering back and forth about the events they were watching unfold.

"Not cut into the boss's great plan here, but, uh…. Why don't any of these Medium girls just wear some torso armor?" squeaked the first goblin.

"It gets in the way of their ability to channel magic. The belly button is like some sort of spiritual antenna for mortals, and Mediums rely on it the most. It's a skill tree trade-off," explained the second goblin.

"Oh." The first goblin scratched his head. "I thought they just did that because humans think it looks attractive."

Back on the nest floor, Nikki narrowed her glowing eyes and offered a comforting smile to Bryce.

"You don't have to fight Astaroth anymore, Bryce. He's different now. I'm sorry he took Cypher's life from you, but look at how he's giving me life in return."

Bryce reached to Nikki's waist and took a handful of the tentacle into his fist, ready to uncork the demon from the Medium through brute force. The tendril acted defensively by spreading its length to completely shield Nikki's midriff and squeezing her waist until it threatened to sever her in two at the pelvis. Nikki cooed gently, enjoying the extra pressure on her body and the elevated demon-flow in her veins.

"The woman is already mine, demon hunter," Astaroth said in a menacing tone.

Bryce hesitated and let go of the appendage, only to reach for the sword on his back and pull it from its scabbard. He held the weapon over his head and prepared to chop the tentacle off at the stalk.

"You wouldn't risk it!" Nikki gasped in panic and stepped back the moment her devilish eyes saw the blade.

"My lifeforce is all she has now," Astaroth said triumphantly, brushing his bride's shoulder with their shared tendril to put her worries to rest. "It would be like cutting off her head if she were still human."

"How could you bring yourself to kill poor little me?" Nikki tilted her head and made a playful frown toward Bryce.

"No. You're not Nikki anymore. You're just another hideous part of this monster." Bryce muttered in defeat. And then came the slew of outrageous insults.

"You… you're his stubbed pinky toe! An overgrown hangnail! You're a dried up piece of snot stuck to the side of his nose!"

"It's called a beauty mark," Nikki snorted back. "But what would a walking graveyard like you know about natural healthy body features?" She pointed at Bryce's chest and pressed her index finger against a centuries-old moldy battle scar through his jacket.

"You're a disgusting old pimple growing in this asshole's armpit!" Bryce roared.

"Are you sure about that?" Nikki curiously mused. "Can a pimple do this?"

She swiftly twisted sideways and delivered a roundhouse kick with her shimmering stage boot. Bryce went sailing backwards. Nikki's agility had only managed to increase with the flailing tentacle tangling around her.

"Or this?"

She flipped forward, performed a handstand on Bryce's shoulders, and dove behind him. On the way down, she used her own umbilical tail as a whip to catch Bryce under his shoulders and rip both of his arms straight from their sockets. Bryce collapsed in dual fountains of blood.

"Or how about this?"

Nikki raised her hand, summoning a deluge of crucifixes alit with blue flames from a portal in the air. The tiny crosses pinned Bryce to the ground like a bed of spikes. The magic fire slowly burned his body down to ash as he screamed, putting a crispy end to his immortal misery. Arcadia sunk her head in her arm to save herself from the sight.

"Didn't think so." Nikki said to the last of Bryce's fading embers. She blew the magic smoke from the tips of her painted nails, then turned her attention to Arcadia sulking on the ground.

The human gasped in revulsion when their eyes met. The slimy, squirming demoness simply blinked.

"What's wrong with you, toots? Haven't you ever seen a pop singer with a belly piercing?"

Arcadia's answer only came as faint whimpering. Nikki gave her a threatening sneer and slowly opened her hand again. Tiny bolts of lightning began to build up in her fingertips as she focused the static energy in the atmosphere around her. The tears in the corners of Arcadia's eyes grew as a look of terror washed over her face.

"Leave the human," Astaroth sternly interrupted. "She's worthless without her precious demon hunter to do her bidding."

Nikki pulled her hand back at the last second and shrugged. She offered Arcadia a small "Tsk" and a quick wink before looking away, a sarcastic gesture that said "See you around."

"Now come to me, my delicious writhling," Astaroth beckoned at last. The sides of Nikki's hips swayed like a pair of mated serpents as she walked, matching the tentacle's pace as it greedily reeled her in. The other tentacles that weren't engrossed in constantly serving her dainty umbilical dimple with tender loving care descended in front of her and formed a staircase of trembling muscle. She climbed her demon master's gargantuan body and reached his head. More tentacles welcomed her by crossing themselves together and creating a crude sort of hammock just beside his chin. Nikki laid herself down in the slithering net with ease.

"Yes, stretch your weary flesh on my shoulder. It will improve your circulation," Astaroth said in a foreboding voice.

Nikki crossed her tanned legs and tucked her arms behind her head as she sighed contently. She fell into total relaxation as Astaroth's power ceaselessly pulsed through her.

The massive Astaroth and the small, shiny, hourglass-shaped extension of himself quivered to the edge of the infested skyscraper. Watching the unsuspecting people below, they chuckled ominously in unified voices. Together they descended into the city with the same malice as the tentacle that had fatefully descended into Nikki.

* * *

 _Author's note: How's that for a magical girl origin story? I guess you could say I really used my noodle._


End file.
